I’ve been reading a book by David Platt called Radical, which emphasizes taking back your faith from the American dream. I really wish everyone to read this book! What David means by taking back our faith is to not conform to the standards of this world and what’s expected of us socially, and even possibly, what’s expected of us in our religious groups. I want to share with you how this idea has been playing out in my life and how it has reassured me of this upcoming journey.
I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian and I’ve completed two degrees in order to accomplish this goal…this desire of mine. During my interview I was asked why I want to be a veterinarian. The greatest reasoning in my heart, after all those years of studying and working with animals, was to provide animal care for those who couldn’t afford it, to go overseas and help improve agriculture so others could have a better way of life, to better the lives of people by expressing to others the significance of animal companionship and production use. It was always to help the least of these to have the best of these. The thought that maybe I’m to take a different direction in life snuck into my head at the end of undergrad, even before the application process into veterinarian school, and continued to progress into graduate school. However, I always wanted to be a veterinarian, everyone in my path continued to encourage me to pursue this dream, and I knew of no other path. Further, I have always and still do see God’s beauty most in His creation of animals.
After 6.5 years in college I am expected by society to settle into a career and actually start using my degrees. With all that money spent on school and the education I received, it’d be foolish not to want to finally put it to use and gain some return for the hard work. But the time spent in school has shaped my character and desires in more ways than fulfilling the American dream. This is not to say that God doesn’t have a plan for me to glorify His name through a career working with animals in the future, but He has dramatically altered my priorities and longings right now.
I want to live in poverty, be in the midst of an oppressed political regime, hang-out with the illiterate, and walk with the disgraceful. I want to see God’s beauty through a different lense. However, this seems foolish to someone who has seen all that I’ve accomplished. But this is what I want! This is what God wants of us. He COMMANDS every one of us to glorify His name in all nations. Even as my support letter says that I am CALLED to missions, I am wrong to say this because we are all called to missions…to spreading the word of God. I am COMMANDED to missions and I specifically am CALLED (with the desires and passions instilled in me, with the freedom from not having settled into a job or invested in a house) to GO and share my life physically with people in other nations.
Not once have I ever been in need…truly in need and not been provided for. I’ve been tremendously blessed and shown the image of God in people around me, even as I’ve been so undeserving of it. As David Platt reemphasizes my longings, he states that God gave his people his image so that they might multiply his image throughout the world, extending his glory to the ends of the earth. For those not “called” to move oversees and physically spread the image of God to all nations, there is another task at hand. This is an area in which, even though I’m willing to take up my comfort here in the United States and move overseas, I fail greatly. I have not been given an abundance of money, mainly because it all went to school, but as I said earlier, I have never been in need and I do have a bank account. I am not poor and I am absolutely capable of living off of less than I have. However, giving to organizations that are taking God’s kingdom to the ends of the earth is not by any means an easy task for me. I’m truthfully quite stingy with my money.
Challenge #1: For ME to give of ALL my blessings.
Challenge #2: For YOU to take note of what God has blessed you with and to give abundantly from that, whether it be the freedom to move overseas or the freedom to invest your time, skills and money to God’s kingdom in other nations, while still living in the United States.
We’ve been blessed not so that we can have a comfortable life, but so we can extend God’s glory to the world. Thank you, God, for making this realization so powerful in my life!
